Canada News

Blizzard blasts into Newfoundland

by
The Canadian Press | Story:
87175 -
Feb 10, 2013 / 2:14 pm

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Harley, a Vizsla, displays his athleticism as his owners Darrin and Lorie Campbell clear their driveway in Dartmouth, N.S. on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. A major winter storm swept through Atlantic Canada on the weekend causing power outages, disrupting travel and forcing event cancellations. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

A weekend blast of wintry weather brought high winds and heavy snow to Newfoundland Sunday after whipping through Ontario and the Maritimes. Meanwhile, rising temperatures on the West Coast had some Canadians thinking of spring.

Environment Canada meteorologist Jeremy March said central Newfoundland was hit with 33 centimetres of snow over the weekend, and was expecting up to another 20 cm as snow continued to blow in.

St. John's received 23 cm of snow, some of which started to melt later in the day as warmer air and fog rolled in. March said the area was expected to get more snow and freezing rain as the storm pushed through.

Wind gusts of more than 100 kilometres an hour were expected to pummel the country's easternmost province after ripping through parts of the Maritimes Saturday.

March said Nova Scotia got some of the worst winds, with many places seeing winds upward of 140 kilometres per hour. A spot just east of Yarmouth in the province's west was hit by extreme gusts that reached 164 km/h, which count as category 2 hurricane winds, March noted.

The system is a hybrid of a storm that dumped 20 to 40 cm of snow in southern Ontario on Friday and a low pressure system that raged up the U.S. eastern seaboard, March said.

"The two in combination became a really intense low (system) just off the coast of Massachusetts ... that did a lot of damage across the New England states. Eventually it pushed a ton of snow and wind across the Maritimes and now it's in Newfoundland," he said.